Earlier this month, I wrote about the German Garfield book I got at Value Village. This article is about the other eight books that were inseperably packaged with that book. The other books included in the bag were Angeln, Der tag der einheit, Viel Spaß beim Fotografieren, Viel Spaß beim Fliegen, Du läßt dich gehn!, and three books about Bremen, Germany.

Here's the fun part! Five of those books have writing in the inside covers. And they're all addressed to someone named Jonathan A. My cousin suspected that the books were from an exchange family that Jon stayed with, but they're mostly all written in English, and they seem to be from peers from various locations.

My guess is that a group of people traveled to Germany together. My Garfield book doesn't have any writing in it, but the Du läßt nicht gehn book has this line from Brenda, which I think is funny: "I'll always admire your 'logical thinking' skills, although you'll probably hate me for saying that. Good luck in Montana next year, but don't forget your little buddie in Wisconsin! I'll be seeing ya next summer!" So maybe some of these people were planning to travel again. I don't know. There isn't enough information.

The writing by Corné in the cover of Viel Spaß beim Fliegen says "It was realy [sic] great getting to know you!" So maybe some of these people were strangers. In the inside cover of Angeln, Shawn A. gives his address—it's Canadian—and he invites Jon to come fishing with him in Vancouver. Corné also wrote "I wish you a happy birthday and one heck of a long life!" so maybe these people conspired to all give Jonathan books as a birthday present.

One of the Bremen books has several signatures in the inside cover, and it's dated 01.08.92—that's August 1, 1992. So these books are old! Since then, I suppose Jon stopped reading these books, and decided to donate them to Value Village. I only got the package of books for the Garfield book—most of the rest are too hard for me—but it was fun to figure out what all these books had in common. Thanks for the Garfield book, Jonathan.

Yesterday, I found a German Garfield book at Value Village. Now, being a huge Garfield fan (I have all of the first 36 Garfield books) and a student of the German language, I was excited to come across this. The book was bagged with a half dozen other German books that I really wasn't interested in, but the employees refused to sell just the one book, since they were all bagged together.

Obviously, that's the English version on the left, and the German version on the right. They are both book 14, and they contain the same strips. But the covers are wildly different! The English book is titled Garfield Swallows His Pride and the German version is called Garfield läßt nicht locker which translates to "Garfield Doesn't Give Up." These are very different titles!

I was surprised that I was able to understand the first strip in the book, posted above. Perhaps it helps that I'm familiar with the English material, though. The strips are almost entirely literal translations of the English versions.

According to Wolfram Alpha, a typical translation to German is 10% longer than the original English source, which means more letters. Accordingly, you can tell that the font size in the German Garfield strips is smaller, to accommodate more letters in the same amount of space.

Like in the English version of Garfield (and nearly every other comic), the German version of Garfield capitalizes every letter. This is worth noting because the German letter ß (eszett, or sharp s) exists only as a lower-case letter. If you want to capitalize "ß", you turn it into "SS". So words like "weiß" and "Spaß" become "WEISS" and "SPASS", as in the strip above.

I also noticed that the German Garfield strips remove Jim Davis's name, the copyright info, and the date from the strips. The playground strip above seems to be an exception, though—it looks like they forgot to remove the date.

And now, the fun part: ONOMATOPOEIAS!!!

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, onomatopoeias (or sound words) are different in different languages. German for "scratch" is "kratzen", so I can see where "KRIIIETSCH!" comes from. It's odd, though, that I imagine a different sound in my head when I read both comics.

Garfield's trademark SPLUT! sound becomes the even more comical FLATSCH! Something else they changed in this panel is the lettering on Garfield's bowl. It says the same thing, but the letters are different. (This is a lot easier to see if you scanned the books and were flipping through the images.) It's not a big change, so I wonder why they bothered redoing it.

Here are actual responses given by contestants on the game show Family Feud (or the British version Family Fortunes). I admit, it may be mean to call some of these answers "dumb", so if you'd like, you can call them "erroneous" or "funny" if you prefer.

Name something in a bird cage

Hamster

Something you'd find in an operating room

Operator

Something that comes with a summer storm

Snow

Something you'd yell at if it stopped working

Spouse

Something worn only by children

Clothes

Something you might buy that could turn out to be phony

Horse

An animal with three letters in its name

Frog

An animal with three letters in its name

Alligator

Something you feel before you buy it

Excited

The price of a dozen roses

$1.75

An article of clothing that children always lose

Pants

An animal whose eggs you'd never eat for breakfast

Hamster

Something you might accidentally leave on all night

Shoes

One of the three bears

Yogi

A holiday named after a person

January

A holiday named after a person

Easter

One of Santa's reindeer

Nixon

One of Santa's reindeer

Adolf

Something Russia is famous for

Russians

Something that comes in pairs

Bananas

A time when people wake up

Morning

A time when people go to bed

Night

A state with good skiing

Florida

Something you buy in a larger size if you have a large family

Jeans

Something you buy in a larger size if you have a large family

Games

A city in the state of Georgia

Alabama

A pie that does not contain fruit

Lemon Meringue

Something that kills a lively party

Guns

A brand of gasoline

Regular

A brand of gasoline

Ethyl

A job around the house that has to be done every fall

Spring Cleaning

A man's name beginning with the letter K

Kentucky Fried Chicken

The month where a pregnant woman begins to show

September

A food that's red on the inside

Kiwi

Something people do clothed that others don't

Ride a motorcycle

The heaviest item in your house

600 pounds

The heaviest item in your house

Husband

Something you put in tea

Tea bag

A holiday where stores are always busy

Monday

Something made of leather that a cowboy uses

Purse

The first thing you take off after work

Underwear

A weather term that can also describe your wife

Wet

A day of the year when you want to be with friends

December

A department in a supermarket

Lingerie

The most lovable breed of dog

Kitten

Something women borrow from each other

Husbands

An invention that has replaced stairs

Wheel

Something you often misplace in your car

Steering wheel

A famous “Arnold”

Arnold & Willis

A reason you might stay indoors on a beautiful day

It's raining

Something associated with the show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Bob Barker

A yellow fruit

Orange

A kind of attraction you see in almost every parade

Merry-go-round

Something you stroke

A match

A tradition associated with Christmas

Hanukkah

A holiday where men buy last minute gifts for their wife

Thanksgiving

A food people give as a gift

Lasagna

A vegetable you marinate

Grapes

The one thing that the people living near you have that you want

A beautiful wife

Something you buy and then have to be careful about how you carry it home

An infant

Besides a house or a car, the most expensive item you own

Car

A food with an edible skin

Banana

A piece of clothing wives buy for their husbands

Halter tops

A street name that is common to cities all over the US

Hollywood Boulevard

A kind of bear

Papa Bear

A real person who made a living scaring people

Red Skelton

Something a hostess does to let her guests know it's time to leave

Goes to bed

An animal with really good sight

Bat

A state beginning with the letter M

Mexico

Something an Indian chief might use

Squaw

Something that floats in the bathtub

Water

A word beginning with “Egg”

Excellent

A city named after a president

Carson City

A sport in which two people compete against each other

Checkers

An occupation in which you disguise your appearance

Doctor

Something that flies that doesn't have an engine

Dishes

Something that flies that doesn't have an engine

A bicycle with wings

Something a blind person might use

Sword

A song with “moon” in the title

Blue Suede Moon

An occupation where you need a flashlight

Burglar

A famous brother and sister

Bonnie & Clyde

An item of clothing worn by the Three Musketeers

A horse

Something you wear on the beach

A lawnchair

Something red

My cardigan

A number you have to memorize

Seven

Something you do before going to bed

Sleep

Something of yours you hit when it's not working properly

Your spouse

Something you put on walls

Roofs

Something in the garden that's green

Shed

Something in the garden that's green

Scarecrow

Something you might be allergic to

Skiing

A famous bridge

The bridge over troubled waters

Something a cat does

Goes to the toilet

Something you do in the bathroom

Decorate

Something associated with the police

Pigs

A sign of the zodiac

April

Something slippery

A conman

A kind of ache

Fillet 'O' Fish

A kind of ache

Pancake

A jacket potato topping

Jam

Something with a hole in it

Window

A food that comes in instant form

Asparagus

A non-living object which has feet

Plant

A domestic animal

Leopard

A part of the body beginning with the letter N

Knee

A part of the body beginning with the letter N

Name

A way of cooking fish

Cod

Something you open other than a door

Bowels

A part of the body everyone has only one of

Big toe

Real or fictional, a famous Willy

Willy the Pooh

Something you squeeze

Peanut butter

A bird with a long neck

Penguin

A continent

Italy

A sport you can never play on grass

Baseball

An occupation starting with "J"

Jackhammerer

A phrase some husbands dread hearing

"Honey, I'm home"

A bad occupation if you don't like kids

Mortician

A question you don't like to be asked

"Are those real?"

A European country in which you'd expect to find castles

London

Something every doctor has

Speculum

An animal with horns

Bee

A medieval weapon

Hand grenade

Something made of wool

A sheep

Something a bridegroom might wear

A dress

Someone you wouldn't expect to see in a strip club

Animals

An animal with a long tail

Rabbit

Something you put out for the birds

Worms

A way to prevent snoring

Put a pillow over his face

A word used to describe a very hot day

A very hot day

Someone who works early hours

Burglar

Something made to be wheeled around

A hammer

A reason for kneeling

To be beheaded

A nickname for a slim person

Slimmy

A measurement of liquid

Paint

Something that's nice to wear next to your skin

Pants

A famous Dick

Carrot

Something that Santa Claus does when he comes to your house

Feeds your pets

Something that comes in 7's

Fingers

Something associated with Liverpool

The Yellow Brick Road

A boy mentioned in a nursery rhyme

Little Red Riding Hood

Something associated with Queen Victoria

Her husbands

Something you hide in your socks when you go swimming

Your legs

A place you would keep a pen

A zoo

Something you beat

An apple

Something you make into a ball

Eggs

A game that uses a black ball

Darts

A way parents reward chidren

Time out

A popular TV soap

Dove

Something you might find in a garage

A grand piano

A fast animal

Hippo

A famous Peter

Peter

Something you keep in the garden

A cat

Something that gives you goose bumps

Mumps

A character from Little Red Riding Hood

Hansel and Gretel

Something that has a shell

Batman

Something a policeman might say

"Spread 'em"

Something that frightens Dracula

The King of the Vampires

A mode of transportation that you can walk in

Your shoes

An animal with big ears

A bear

Something you do on water

Wallpaper

A musical instrument you can play in the bath

Drum kit

Something associated with Egypt

Cigars

Something you pull

A potato

An animal used as a form of transportation

Turtle

A Thunderbirds character

Doctor Spock

Another TV game show with the word 'family' in the title

The Generation Game

Something that makes you scream

A squirrel

A food that can be eaten without chewing

Chips

The ideal everyday temperature

98.6 degrees

A type of record

A floppy disk

A type of large cat

Persian

A job that a working dog does

A slave

Something you use a microchip on

A fish-fryer

A game played in the dark

Charades

A part of the body you have more than two of

Arms

Something you find on a fire engine

Coal

The first place detectives look for fingerprints

The floor

Something you associate with the sea

A coffin

A famous Arthur

Shakespeare

A weapon in the game of Clue

Dice

Something people take to the beach

Turkey

A reason someone digs a hole in the road

Grave digger

Something a girl should know about a man before marrying him

His name

An item of clothing a woman might borrow from a man

Underpants

Something taken from a hotel as a souvenir

The lamps

Something you keep in a garden shed

A gardener

Something you wear on the beach

Deckchair

Fruit used in fruit salad

Cucumber

The last thing you take off before going to bed

Your feet

Something that has to warm up before you use it

Your wife

A noisy bird

Chipmunk

A car known by its initials

Corvette

Something you keep handy by the front door

Spittoon

A job that helicopters are used for

Tuna fishing

A famous robber

Cops

A famous resort area outside the continental United States

Tahoe

An American state where people speak with accents

Mexico

Something a man has that he'd be upset if someone else used it

His jockstrap

Something London is famous for

Pasta

Something you wouldn't want the police to find in the trunk of your car

Pickles

A game you could play in the bath

Scuba diving

A food that makes a noise when you eat it

Really loud hamburger

Something that your wife would do that would be shocking

Greet you at the door naked

Something you throw away when you're moving away

Pantry

A dangerous animal that some people keep as pets

Wolf

When you sneak out of work, the reason you give for leaving

"I'm going to the beach!"

When you sneak out of work, the reason you give for leaving

"Going to another job"

An animal that eats mice

Rat

Something you have that you wish worked better

Spouse

Something you wouldn't try even once

Sex on a train

A famous male dancer

Betty Grable

An occasion for which you stayed up all night

Lost my virginity

Your favorite country western singer

Van Whalen

Something that falls from the trees

Bird shit

Something a dentist says

"Just a small prick"

An excuse that a girl uses not to invite you in after a date

Her husband's home

A name that rhymes with "Larry"

Larry

Something you just won't buy unless it's on sale

Cake mix

Something you just won't buy unless it's on sale

Drapes

Besides an animal, something with a tail

Tailpipe

Something that gets accidentally run over by a lawn mower

The lawn mower's cord

An occupation where someone wears a robe at work

A fireman

An occupation where someone wears a robe at work

A graduate

A sport that people sometimes play by themselves

Tic-tac-toe

A household pet you can leave by itself for a couple of days

Monkey

A part of the body people love to have massaged

Hips

An activity that makes people cry

Playing games

A vegetable that is grown in a patch

Strawberry

Something some people fear that starts with the letter S

Squirrels

A reaction someone might have if they got really scared

Laugh

An occasion when family photographs are taken

Photography

Something that comes after the word "double"

U

Something you'd hate for the plane you're on to only have one of

Pillows

Something your spouse does in the bedroom that rhymes with "mumble"

Pumble

Something you should do in moderation or you'll be sorry later

Sex

A famous group of singers

The Simpsons

A breed of dog that starts with the letter C

Cheetah

A vegetable that takes more than one bite to eat

Apple

Something every dream home must have

RV parking

A word that rhymes with "bubble"

Fubble

A question, such as, "How old are you?" that you might answer with a lie

18

A question, such as, "How old are you?" that you might answer with a lie

50

A question, such as, "How old are you?" that you might answer with a lie

I'm 39

Something you see along the side of the street

Carnage

Something that people stick a pin into

Their eyes

The perfect dessert for a supermodel

Chocolate cake

The perfect dessert for a supermodel

Brownies

A country that has exactly four letters in its name

China

A city famous for its museums

England

A liquid that pours slowly

Milk

A fruit that is red

Kiwi

A way of toasting someone

Over fire

Something you keep in a kitchen canister

Cans

A way which you can make bathing a sexy experience

401(k) jelly

Something a man might hate about his chest

Flat

A place where people are scolded for falling asleep

On the airplane

Something you might find in a manicure set

A wig

A part of a telephone

The bottom part

When kids finally move out of the house, something specific they often leave behind

Their parents

When kids finally move out of the house, something specific they often leave behind

A blender

When kids finally move out of the house, something specific they often leave behind

Their boyfriend or their girlfriend

Something that guests get hit with a Jerry Springer

Keys

Something a teenage boy can do for hours at a time

Masturbate

In order to get a three-day weekend, a holiday usually celebrated on Mondays

Thanksgiving

In order to get a three-day weekend, a holiday usually celebrated on Mondays